What do you do when your monthly poetry event is shut down do to the closure of pubs, bars, cafes, school and church buildings or, in my case, Community Centres? Before this situation I was able to pay small sums to feature artists, and for the moment, I can’t.
There are performance poets, who have had their already paltry income stripped away. So I thought video clips, crowd fund, and I’ll get a video editor app and put something together.
I had a word/text with Martin, my help and support at Brownhills Community Centre and he produced a nice bit of a graphic to use. Got onto CrowdFunder.co.uk, spread the word here and there, and soon enough we were ready to go.
Soon enough links to home made video clips were landing in my inbox and I gained permission from a singer-songwriter to use one of his tracks. The April feature writer, RM Francis agreed to send readings from his latest book in his best Black Country dialect/accent, and I set to for ten days of drawing it all together.
So here it is. I hope you enjoy it. And if you voted, before May 6th (2020) you contributed to the three most voted for most who each received a few ££s to ease their lockdown cash shortfall. Comment on here or email to spoke@albarz.uk
Crowdfund link is closed. Thank you if you gave.
And here is the video, on YouTube for your edification. Enjoy!
Al Barz
Al Barz 